For real though, can we talk about how hard we work? Because sometimes people forget about us lonely theatre kids.
A few weeks ago, my eleven-year-old sister, who is a competitive cheerleader, tried to tell me that anyone can do theater. Anyone.
Of course, I immediately put her in her place and she hasn't said anything against theater since. Our conversation began with-
Me: "okay, why do you say that?"
Sister: "so how many times do you have practice a week?"
Me: "I rehearse for three to four hours 3-5 times a week"
Sister: "yeah I have practice for two hours twice a week. But I bet you don't have to practice on the weekends from 10-11:30"
Me: "actually I usually rehearse from 9-12 Saturday mornings and usually all day during tech days"
Sister: "oh. Okay. But I like never have time off except the summer"
Me: "I usually do a fall play, a winter one act, a spring musical, and then a summer show with the community theatre"
Sister:"yeah but... Cheer is hard."
She proceeded to tell me her competition schedules. Pretty much, ever few months, she would go to a convention center at about 9am, warm up for 15 minutes, perform the same 2 and a half minute routine she's been working on for a year, eat lunch, go to awards at 12:30, and go home.
Boy, did I have news for her.
I told her about rehearsing for and being in a show. She sat speechless as a explained to her how to use dry shampoo when you only have an 8th of a bottle left and you have 2 pounds of industrial strength hairspray in your hair and you just finished your matinee and you have one more show to do and not enough time to go home and shower because you need to be back in an hour so you get chipotle and eat it in two seconds before warm ups which usually take about 45 minutes to do properly. I tell her about my voice lessons weekly and my ballet, jazz, and tap classes. I tell her about being a drama club officer and even doing church choir and playing handbells, ukulele, and piano in my spare time. I tell her about the $80 I spent on dance shoes last week because I outgrew my black characters I've worn for 3 years. I tell her about agonizing dance rehearsals when the director decides the most intense dance break in the show doesn't quite look good yet so you spend three hours running it nonstop and by the time you've left you can barely breathe. I tell her about sitting in music rehearsals so long your voice starts to giv out and you feel so restless you wish you were back in the dance studio drilling the opening number. I tell her about memorizing lines, blocking, lyrics, choreo, when to crescendo and decrescendo, when to move props and sets, and where to stand so you don't get run over. I tell her about getting your hair and makeup done to perfection in minutes and how to put on a leotard and tights as fast as possible. I tell her about quick changes and missing props. I tell her about tech week. I tell her about eating fruit slices while the stage managers and costumers aren't looking, and drinking gallons of water every day. I tell her about running sequences onstage over and over until you can't decide wether your head or your feet hurt more. I tell her about publicizing your show so hard because if you don't sell enough tickets, there won't be another show. I tell her about how hard I work for something that she thinks is so easy. I tell her about how I wish I could tell the same thing to everyone who direguards theater as an art, because I've literally devoted my entire life to it.
•do theatre, not drama•
~Sierra
